STAFF PROFILE
Distinguished Professor Ma Qian Ma
Dr Ma Qian is Distinguished Professor of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials at RMIT. Professor Qian has come to RMIT from The University of Queensland in 2013 where he was the Reader in Materials Engineering, School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering.
Currently Professor Qian also holds the appointments of Honorary Professor of The University of Queensland, Australia, and Specially Appointed Professor of Osaka University, Japan.Awards and honours
(i) Materials Australia's Highest Honour - The Silver Medal (2022)
(ii) Fellow of American Society for Metals International (FASM, 2020) ASM is the World's foremost professional society for materials scientists, engineers and technicians (established in 1913)
(iii) RMIT Engineering 2019 Executive Dean's Research Excellence Award - Level E (professorial level)
(iv) American Society for Metals International (ASM) 2006 Henry Howe Marion Medal
(v) TMS Light Metals 2003 - Magnesium Technology Award
(vi) The inaugural Australian CAST-CRC Industry Partners Award (2003)
(vii) The Australian CAST-CRC Commercialisation Award (2003)
(viii) Five best papers awards
Academic outputs and impacts
Four Elsevier books + 292 peer-reviewed journal articles as of Dec 2022
Citations: > 16,700 Scopus citations or > 21,000 Google Scholar citations as of Dec 2022
Books
(i) Light Alloys: Metallurgy of Light Metals, 544 pages, 5th edition, Elsevier, 2017 (I. Polmear, D. H. StJohn, J. F. Nie and M. Qian)
(ii) Titanium Powder Metallurgy: Science, Technology and Applications, 648 pages, Elsevier, 2015 (M. Qian and F. H. Froes, editors)
(iii) Titanium in Medical and Dental Applications, 630 pages. Elsevier, 2018 (F. H. Froes and M. Qian, editors)
(iv) Titanium for Consumer Applications, 490 pages, Elsevier, 2019 (F. H. Froes, M. Qian, M. Niinomi, editors)
Recent journal articles
- “Migration of solidification grain boundaries and prediction”, Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 5910.
- “Grain structure control during metal 3D printing by high-intensity ultrasound”, Nature Communications, 2020, 11, 142.
- “Robust bulk micro-nano hierarchical copper structures possessing exceptional bactericidal efficacy”, Biomaterials, 2022, 280, 121721.
- “Additive manufacturing of intricate lattice materials: Ensuring robust strut additive continuity to realize the design potential”, Additive Manufacturing, 2022, 58, 103022.
- “Near room-temperature formation of Cu3Sn: In-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction characterization and thermodynamic assessments of its nucleation”, Acta Materialia 213 (2021) 116894.
Inventions
One commercialised invention - a grain refinement technology for magnesium alloys (WO03062492; EP1466038; US20050161121; CN1639389A; DE60330309D1).
Four other patent applications: WO2020132712; WO2022099375; CN2017/201710053977.3; CN2015/089698
Major developments
He and his collaborators have recently developed a thermodynamic model which successfully predicted migration of solidification grain boundaries (SGBM) in ten alloy systems (Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 5910). This should be the first theoretical model for SGBM.
In another recent effort, he and his team developed an ultrasound assisted metal 3D printing process ("Grain structure control during metal 3D printing by high-intensity ultrasound", Nature Communications, 2020, 11, 142, which can convert the long columnar grains into fine equiaxed grains, demonstrated on Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 625. In addition, it allows for the fabrication of gradient materials by switching on and off the ultrasound during metal 3D printing. The audience reach within three weeks of the publication of this work through a RMIT news release was 146 million.
More recently, he and his team have developed a robust bulk micro-nano hierarchical copper material possessing exceptional bactericidal efficacy (Biomaterials, 2022, 280, 121721). This new copper surface can eliminate golden staph in 2 minutes, 120 times than a normal copper surface. The audience reach within three weeks of the publication of this work through a RMIT news release was 276 million.
He co-developed the widely accepted Interdependence Theory of Solidification (Acta Materialia, 2011, 59, 4907-4921; 2010, 58, 3262-3270) and the in-situ phase transformation controlled selective laser melting (SLM) process for 3D printing of titanium alloys (Acta Materialia, 2015, 85, 74-84).
His fundamental work on grain refinement of magnesium alloys by zirconium has resulted in the development of a commercial refiner available a magnesium-zirconium master alloy. This master alloy is currently available from Magontec, and “is considered to be the best performing master alloy in terms of effectiveness and cost”.
His other fundamental contributions include those that focused on heterogeneous nucleation (Acta Materialia, 2007, 55, 943-953; 2006, 54, 2241-2252, J. Chem. Phys. 2009, 130, 214709, J. Crystal Growth, 2012, 355, 73-77), powder metallurgy of titanium alloys (Acta Materialia , 2014, 68, 196–206) and aluminium alloys (Acta Materialia, 2010, 58, 5667-5674), de-alloying and re-alloying (Acta Materialia, 2019, 168, 376-392; Electrochimica Acta 2015, 164, 288-296) and thermodynamics of materials (Acta Materialia, 1998, 46,1669-1681; Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 1994, 42, 4083-4086; 1994, 42, 4087-4091; Metall Mater Trans A, 2002, 33A, pp. 1285-1287; 2000, 31A, 2659-2661).
Editorial
He currently serves as an Associate Editor for both Acta Materialia and Scripta Materialia and is on the editorial board for a number of other journals. In addition, he is the Series Editor of Elsevier on Additive Manufacturing and an Advisory Editor of Elsevier on Advanced Manufacturing and Materials. Also, he serves as the Publications Committee Chair of Materials Australia.
Conferences
Professor Qian initiated the first biennial international conference on Powder Metallurgy Titanium (PM Ti) in 2011 in Australia, which has been successively held in New Zealand (2013), Germany (2015), China (2017), the United States (2019), and Canada (2022). The next PM Ti conference will be held in Spain (2024). It has become a premier conference on PM Ti and the scope of this conference was extended to cover 3D printing of titanium alloys since the 2015 conference in Germany. In addition, he served as the Organising Committee Chair for the first (2017) and second (2019) Asia-Pacific International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (APICAM) organised by Materials Australia in Melbourne at RMIT University.
- Elambasseril, J.,Rogers, J.,Wallbrink, C.,Munk, D.,Leary, M.,Ma, M. (2023). Laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (LPBF-AM): the influence of design features and LPBF variables on surface topography and effect on fatigue properties In: Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences, 48, 132 - 168
- Laleh, M.,Hughes, A.,Ma, Q.,Tan, M. Y., et al, . (2023). Heat treatment for metal additive manufacturing In: Progress in Materials Science, 133, 1 - 104
- Zhou, Q.,Zhang, X.,Tang, H.,Ma, Q. (2023). Electron beam additively manufactured Ti–1Al–8V–5Fe alloy: In-situ precipitation hardening, tensile properties and fracture characteristics In: Materials Science and Engineering A, 865, 1 - 7
- Elambasseril, J.,Benoit, M.,Zhu, S.,Easton, M.,Lui, E.,Brice, C.,Ma, M.,Brandt, M. (2022). Effect of process parameters and grain refinement on hot tearing susceptibility of high strength aluminum alloy 2139 in laser powder bed fusion In: Progress in Additive Manufacturing, 7, 887 - 901
- Liu, H.,Liu, Y.,Lu, S.,Chen, Y.,Ma, Q, et al, . (2022). Alloy solidification: Assessment and improvement of an easy-to-apply model In: Journal of Materials Science and Technology, 130, 1 - 11
- Smith, J.,Tran, N.,Song, T.,Liang, D.,Ma, Q. (2022). Robust bulk micro-nano hierarchical copper structures possessing exceptional bactericidal efficacy In: Biomaterials, 280, 1 - 12
- Afroz, L.,Das, R.,Ma, M.,Easton, M.,Brandt, M. (2022). Fatigue behaviour of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) Ti–6Al–4V, Al–Si–Mg and stainless steels: a brief overview In: International Journal of Fracture, 235, 3 - 46
- Liu, H.,Lu, S.,Zhang, Y.,Chen, H.,Chen, Y.,Ma, Q. (2022). Migration of solidification grain boundaries and prediction In: Nature Communications, 13, 1 - 12
- Noronha, J.,Ma, Q.,Leary, M.,Kyriakou, E.,Almalki, A.,Brudler, S.,Brandt, M. (2022). Additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V horizontal hollow struts with submillimetre wall thickness by laser powder bed fusion In: Thin-Walled Structures, 179, 1 - 12
- Medvedev, A.,Maconachie, T.,Leary, M.,Ma, Q.,Brandt, M. (2022). Perspectives on additive manufacturing for dynamic impact applications In: Materials and Design, 221, 1 - 23
12 PhD Completions19 PhD Current Supervisions
- Design,Manufacture and Characterisati on of Material Systems for Ultra-High Temperature Application (PhD student Michael Ives, S3723900). Funded by: Defence Science Institute (DSI) Grant for Scholarships from (2023 to 2025)
- Ultrahigh strength maraging titanium alloys for additive manufacturing. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects commencing in 2022 from (2022 to 2025)
- Non-destructive detection and analysis in AM metal (PhD candidate Sana Awan). Funded by: CSIRO Post Graduate Top Up Scholarship from (2021 to 2025)
- A high-power-ultrasound 3D printing enabling apparatus for the manufacture of unique top-quality orthopaedic implants. Funded by: Harold and Cora Brennen Trust Grant from (2021 to 2022)
- Novel micro-architecture-optimised metal lattice structures by 3D printing. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2020 from (2020 to 2023)